What is the impact of selling half our carbon credits?

Businesses participating in the New Zealand Emission Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) must give the government one NZU for each tonne of emissions they produce. Carbon credits: these are financial instruments – things that can be bought and sold – that represent a unit of carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2e. One carbon credit is equal to 1 tonne of CO2e.

Selling our carbon credits means that if we do need them in the near future, we need to be buying them. Of the 72 hectares of land at Levin Landfill, 18 hectares (one quarter of the land), is landfill and the rest is covered in pine trees. The trees currently there were planted 20 years ago. The trees will provide us with some revenue thorough carbon credits and tree harvesting.

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